Kai-Fu Lee's AI startup 01.ai, founded in May 2023 and headquartered in Beijing, aims to complete an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2027 after releasing its first full annual financial results [1, 2, 3, 4].
The company is currently concluding a pre-IPO financing round that will align with its fiscal year closing in December [1, 2, 5, 3, 4]. To facilitate the overseas listing, 01.ai is unwinding its offshore holding structure to simplify regulatory and ownership issues [1, 2, 5, 3, 4].
Originally focused on developing large language models, 01.ai shifted its business strategy to enterprise AI infrastructure and AI agent platforms due to recent economic changes in training costs for large models [1, 2, 4]. Kai-Fu Lee described the company’s flagship product "Boss AI" as a platform that integrates internal organizational data for real-time management queries, positioning 01.ai as "China's Palantir" [4].
The startup is valued at over US$1 billion and counts investors such as Alibaba Group’s cloud unit among its backers [1]. Roughly half of 01.ai’s revenue is reportedly generated from overseas markets, including Europe and Asia, reflecting its international reach [4].
01.ai is part of China's so-called "AI Tigers"—a group of fast-growing AI firms including Z.AI, MiniMax, StepFun, DeepSeek, and Moonshot—all seeking capital market listings in the near term [1, 4].
Kai-Fu Lee publicly confirmed the IPO plans and ongoing pre-IPO financing on July 20 at the Shanghai World AI Conference. He said, "我们的目标是在2027年（上市），也就是财年结束之后" (Our goal is to list in 2027, after the fiscal year ends) [1, 2, 3, 4]. On AI chip supply, Lee noted, "只有與AI相關的成熟製程才吃緊" (Only the mature manufacturing processes related to AI are tight) [3].
01.ai intends to complete its IPO shortly after publishing its first full set of annual financial statements for 2026, marking a key milestone in its growth trajectory [1, 2, 3, 4].
